The Fantasy Tale of a Penniless Mercenary

Intro to The Story

It was a world where humans and demi-humans co-exists with each other. But unfortunately, peace is still far from grasp. They must face the threat from monsters or maybe other countries. For facing monsters, one usually sought the help of an adventurer. But in terms of wars, one usually use the services of a mercenary.

Our main character, Rolen, a mercenary, or to be precise Ex-Mercenary, is now in a deep trouble due to the mercenary band he joined for a long time, just got disbanded. Lost in a battle, he got separated from his merc friends and somehow got his way to the Town called Kaffa. But the worst part is, he is short of money. Considering that he only had confidence in his brawn, so he decided to become an adventurer. He immediately applied (and there goes a penny for the application fee) and not long obtained an adventurer tag which identified him as an F class annNNND OFF HE GOES!…….to the restaurant floor next to the guild. Sorry folks but our boy here just needed to take a break from all the stuff happened recently. He needed the time to sort his feelings to move on, carry on to his new life/career as an adventurer. Unexpected from his appearance, Rolen isn’t the typical brawn character which is usually stupid, straight-forward or simple minded. He TOOK things quite carefully and sometimes got pessimistic like “Does this job really worth it?” “Am I the right person?” etc. He spent some time considering which quest to take on while drinking some cheap booze (and there goes a penny for the booze). And suddenly, another F-rank swordman adventurer called Sarfe, asked Rolen to team up with his party for a while to take on the quest to eliminate a bunch of goblins troubling a village called Maine Village…..(You don’t say a certain red hair B**ch is the Village chief? No way). His party is consisted of a Monk named Naron, a Mage called Oxi and a Acolyte called Lapis, which is coincidentally all of them are Female (Sarfe is just like me when playing RPG or MMORPG, I mostly made a lineup of GURRLZZZ because duh). Anyway, Sarfe thought that he could use the help of a another warrior to manage the Tank role and Rolen took on the offer due to the pay is better than the remaining odd job quests like cleaning the sewer. They agreed to meet up in the town’s east gate on the next day’s morning. But immediately he regretted his decision to team up with Sarfe’s party the next day because a few matter such as:

1. Lack of Communication. Despite the estimated time for one way trip is three days on foot and also the low rewards, Sarfe decided to ride a carriage. This caused BIG issue for Rolen, because he had no budget for riding a carriage. Just when he wanted to tell that he will run instead, Lapis the Acolyte lend him some money to cover his transport without telling the others.
2. No Manners. When they had to spend the night outside, they had agreed on the rotation for the nightwatch. First, Rolen. Then, Sarfe etc. BUTTTT guess what? Sarfe didn’t show up in campfire due for being busy having fun with Oxi and Naron. Lapis also couldn’t rest well due to those three pleasure time so she decided to accompany Rolen nightwatch until the morning. The next morning, Sarfe showed up from his tent and put up a confused look “What? How come it’s already morning? What about the nightwatch?” (Oh I wanna put my fist on his face)
3. No Commonsense. As they have arrived at the village, it’s commonsense that they should greet the Village chief as the one who requested the Quest and may as well gather information about the goblins. But NOooooo. Sarfe said “It’s only goblins, we don’t need to gather any information. Just found and kill them. Besides, we can ask the carriage coach guy to report to the Village Chief. it’ll be more effective to go straight look for the goblins” (What a smartass)
4. No Focus. So they went straight into the woods looking for the goblins. Guess WHAT? not long after they entered the woods, they found plants and fruits and started to collecting them. Anyone said anything about go straight finding the goblins? Meh. On this moment, Rolen and Lapis are already in the verge of losing hope on this party. But before they decided anything about quitting, arrows came down raining on them. Of course, the goblins.
5. No experience. Lucky enough, amongst those five, the arrows only scarce Oxi’s shoulder. Sarfe and Naron immediately went to her side and asking for her condition. Rolen couldn’t believe his eyes. The enemies threat hasn’t been nullified yet those two showed their back in order to tend to their friend.
6. Not smart enough. After tend to Oxi, Sarfe decided immediately to chase the goblins and they tracked the goblins into a cave. While Sarfe and co had no doubt whatsoever and keep chasing the goblins into the cave, Rolen and Lapis had already guessed that this is a trap.

As expected, everything hits the fan not long after they entered the cave. They got ambushed by the goblins inside the cave. The goblins has a shaman in their ranks and that shaman made Lapis and Oxi paralyzed while Sarfe and Noran got beaten up by the archers and goblins footman. Rolen made a quick decision to save only Lapis, leaving those three behind.

L: “Why did you save me and not the others?”

R: “I helped you on a whim. You got lucky. I owe you money. Pick one. Either one’s gotta be right”.

L: “Cannot it because Rolen is a kind guy?”

R: “If I was, I wouldn’t left the others then”

L: “But I was saved. So I’ll just leave it that way”

~The Fantasy Tale of A Penniless Mercenary vol 01~

A relationship started from a tokens of copper coins. But, Rolen haven’t realized it by this time that the moment he borrowed money from Lapis, he is inevitably to accompany her for a long time, and together they will face dozens of epic adventures.

What is the Charm of This Series?

A. An MC with a “mild taste” of character

If you have read Japanese shonen manga or LNs, you would have probably see a “stereotypes” of characters. In case of female characters, you would’ve seen some roled as tsundere, some are “cutesy but stupid”, etc. While male character tends to be “defender-of-justice spirit”, “hot-headed brawn”, “lady-magnet but not showing any interest to any girl”. Of course that many series nowadays have been showing “quirks” or “variants” but still based on those attributes, so somehow they managed to make a “unique” character. But, Rolen is not mc with a “strong flavor” type of character. He is “mild taste”. If I were to make comparison, he might be the same group with Guts of Berserk. He’s just… chill. He’s indeed a brawn type of fighters BUT he is not simple-minded yet charismatic like Luffy. He’s indeed a mercenary and killing people for a living but he doesn’t have an abnormal thirst for blood or a battle-junkie like Kenpachi of Bleach. From 10 books I’ve read so far, Rolen is a rational guy, with no strong ambitions or great dreams. He just wants to keep his daily routine life where he can afford food to eat and booze to drink, and stay alive to live the same day after. He doesn’t show any “special kind of attention or caring” towards females which can trigger any “flag” of intimacy, just… chill. Top to that, he has a strong integrity. Like borrowing money or owing something, he will never forgets it and never fail to repay it. Which is why he is a reliable guy, personal-like or profession-like.

B. An MC with a mysterious past

This attribute is what makes Rolen as a wholesome. Rolen’s past is a big question mark. His feat from book to book is just too astonishing. Putting aside an X-factor of the situation, Rolen managed great feats upon carrying out his job as an adventurer. I’d say he’s quite an OP for just a ex-mercenary. I like how the author pointing out his gesture, his knowledge which we thought it was normal but apparently it’s not and those are leading to his past, piece by piece. Like a rat getting lured by a piece of tiny cheese one by one, hoping there’s be a big piece waiting in the end of the road.

C. Smart-ass Heroine

As I have mentioned in the story intro, later on Rolen will be accompanying Lapis, the priest girl. She has secrets regarding her identity but you’d probably can figure it out. But her secret is not what making her a good character. In my opinion, it’s not her secret identity what makes her interesting instead it’s her personality. Their relationship is rather close to Kuro-Iwanaga from Kyoko Suiri. On heroine perspective too, Lapis is similar to Iwanaga. They both has a crush on the MC and made “smart approach” to the mc. But while Iwanaga seemed to succeed to earn the position of a “girlfriend”, Lapis is becoming more of a partner. Sometimes, I just feel sad for her.

Lapis holds multiple roles in her party with Rolen. First of all, due to Rolen is amazingly keeping loaning to her, Rolen cannot argue nor reject any quest she proposed. Sometimes she came with option “B”, but Rolen cannot go for option “C” for sure. She is frankly the “Owner” of this party. Related to this financial power relationship, she is practically the “Finance Advisor” for her role to decide what extent resupply provisions or to decide whether they should pay something to some extent in order to complete some quest. And when she holds the card to discuss business-matter, she holds up the “Merchant” role in this party also. In some quests, there are those which is directly requested to Rolen’s party and in order to discuss the terms, Lapis usually can manage to suck the clients dry. And not to mention, due to her background, Lapis is amazingly knowledgeable person. When Rolen has some question related to the quest they are taking, Lapis is the one to explain and answer to his inquiries. But in the end, Lapis didn’t decide the party’s policy, instead she let Rolen to decide for her. So it’s usually goes by Lapis bring the proposal of which Quest to take, Rolen asks her regarding risks, terrains, etc, then off they go. But when trouble occurs, Lapis will let Rolen decide whether they should proceed or not. So clearly, she is not the Party Leader.

D. Rock BGM themed Action RPG

This book has a standard pattern of story flow. Each book is basically tells about one quest where it will be concluded with a battle scene against the boss enemy. The boss fight is what I describe as “reckless”. Mostly because Rolen, a “normal human” fighting against “something that should be out of his league”. And for a gamer like, reading Rolen fighting the boss enemy feels so adrenaline pumping. It’s like Ys series boss battle. They play very cool rock BGM for Boss battle. I like it alot.

E. A Humorous Intro of Each Book

This series had a good sense of humor by starting the Story with a “Rumor” thing. Like:

A rumor said that a town just fell into ruin. It seems so unrealistic and that’s why people called it as just a rumor. But that rumor felt so familiar by the guy at the tavern over there, drinking cheap booze from the morning.

This Rumor stuff is actually, triggered by Rolen’s feat at the quest or adventure on the last book. For example the quote above, means that on the last book, Rolen fought the boss in another town and in the process, the town got quite heavily damaged.

Conclussion

• If you like MC with mysterious past, I recommend you.
• If you like RPG-like storyline, I recommend you.
• If you dislike harem themed story, I recommend you.
• If you have ever play falcom’s Ys series game, I recommend you.

Other Media

The comic of this series is already released by Hobby Japan Comic, drawn by Ikemiya Area (池宮アレア) Per date of this post, it has released 2 books. I’d say Ikemiya-sensei did well for character proportion, expression, background and battle scene. Though he/she has a slow pace for releasing 2 vol comics with interval of ONE year (AKA one vol/year). You can buy the official release in Hobby Japan Comic site by clicking to this covers below.

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Here’s my ratings for the comic adaptation:

• Character proportion : 9
• Character expression : 8
• Background : 7
• Action : 7
• Story arrangement : 7

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